Gypsy Moths on a cargo ship...

Bonsai Nut

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Did anyone see the story about the inspector on a Japanese cargo ship in LA Harbor this week? The inspector discovered one adult Gypsy Moth and 24 (!) egg cases. They made the ship return to international waters and the captain decided to have the ship fumigated and treated.

Close call...

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/08/cargo-ship-gypsy-moths.html
 

mcpesq817

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Wow, close call. Glad the inspector caught them.

Does anyone know if western species are causing similar havoc in Asia?
 

Bill S

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BNut - sarcasm?????:D

Either that or I have been having premature dreams( I said dreams) ;) Ahhh! thats why people think we are nuts, aluminum foil hats and vasaline on the trees, what must they think we are doing.

Mcpesq - we don't make anything here to ship overseas anymore, suppose we could send them some fleas.

Rockm, it's ok they taste like chicken, and can be ridden by small children. I know rodents, they multiply, hopefully it will be in the Everglades where all the pythons are eating up the native species.
We have recently had incidents up here with potentially the snakeheads.
 

rockm

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"We have recently had incidents up here with potentially the snakeheads."

Get used to the snakeheads. We've had them here in the Potomac River for going on ten years now. They are now "abundant" there, according to Va. Fisheries. Researchers don't know exactly what they're doing to native fish species.

We've also had Gypsy moths for over 100 years here on the East Coast--starting up in Mass. and spreading South. They've decimated alpine conifers and hardwoods forests all along the Appalachians from Maine to West Va. and down into N.C. They are very bad news. In some areas with heavy infestations, they eat so much, their poop falling to the ground can sound like rain on the roof. They defoliate entire mountainsides of trees...

Just hope those huge rats don't make it down to Fla. to feed the pythons...:D
 

Bill S

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Whew! At first I thought you were mad , but as rockm pointed out,(me in a tin foil hat way) that we have had these here forever, didn't dawn on me that you guys din't have them yet. I wasn't kidding, as you drive around New England, you would see trees belted with tin foil, then smeared with vasaline(some just had at em with the vasaline, you can still see the marks in the bark), to keep them from climbing, eating and reproducing in the trees. You see thier tents around if you look for them, they look like spider webs made into tents, all over the tree scape.

I see your point too, especially with the counter attack Cal. did on the med flies, cover up your stuff the choppers are coming to spray. We've also got the Asian Long horn beetles, and adelgigs(sp.?), you'd think the cold and snow would help, but alas our forests in places are looking rather sad.

Unfortunately in the small global world we live in, these things are going to spread. So I guess getting a little mad isn't so bad.


"Just hope those huge rats don't make it down to Fla. to feed the pythons..."
This could make Florida the center of Big snake scary movies. And to think one of the recent "reality" shows is Hogs gone wild.

Bees, bats, beetles, capibara, pythons, Gypsy moths, anyone seen the show When people are gone, makes one think they aren't waiting for us to go.
 
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Mike423

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The huge Norway rats are in Florida, Poor Florida they have in my mind the worst of the invasive species and things are really starting to get bad down there. They have Wild pigs, Fie ants, Norway rats, Burmese and African Rock Pythons, Monitor lizards, and now recent incline in numbers of Iguanas and Lionfish. And that's not even a tenth of the list.

I'm just waiting for the Asian carp invasion to demolish the entire Midwest ecosystem. Not that they dont already have us on the ropes.
 

Bill S

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Bat virus', Killer Bees, I'd bet are on the list.

Solve the whole US problem, build a big wall, no one in or out, guard towers, and have the FBI check the luggage of anyone ever on a bonsai forum, they like to sneak trees in, in thier luggage.:eek:

Soilent Green is PEOPLE!

Mike is the carp the one that you need to put chain link fence around the boat to keep them from pummeling you as you drive the boat?
 
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Mike423

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Yep. Who needs duck season PULL!!!!
 

Dav4

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I vaguely remember watching a documentary involving manmade pressures on certain environments. One such instance involves the dumping of bilge water by cargo ships as they dock in any given harbor and it's effects on indigenous plants and animals. Bilge water contains insane numbers of microorganisms from wherever the ship has been. Anyway, a group of biologists closely evaluated the biomass(fish, seaweed, crustaceans, etc) in San Francisco Bay, categorizing whatever they found as being either indigenous or non-indigenous to the bay. Their results were staggering- fully 97% of the biomass found was foreign, having been transplanted there from somewhere else:eek:.
 

Mike423

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I vaguely remember watching a documentary involving manmade pressures on certain environments. One such instance involves the dumping of bilge water by cargo ships as they dock in any given harbor and it's effects on indigenous plants and animals. Bilge water contains insane numbers of microorganisms from wherever the ship has been. Anyway, a group of biologists closely evaluated the biomass(fish, seaweed, crustaceans, etc) in San Francisco Bay, categorizing whatever they found as being either indigenous or non-indigenous to the bay. Their results were staggering- fully 97% of the biomass found was foreign, having been transplanted there from somewhere else:eek:.

That's how we got zebra muscles and those damn gobi's in lake Michigan. Tankers dumping their bilge from the Caspian sea. The ecosystem and fishing alike have been devastated ever since their arrival. The gobi's are everywhere like rats and nothing will eat them.
 

Bill S

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We are starting to get boat wash stations because of some zebra muscles got into a pond here, now talking about a river.

Starting to not like the global word, can we go back to National Geographic?:rolleyes:

Mike I like that, can you imagine the drunken redneck fishing shoots we should start seeing soon, problem is they will probably set up on both sides of the river and give the fish a chance.
 
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